Polku kohti päämääräämme ei aina ole suora.
Menemme väärää tietä, eksymme, palaamme
takaisin. Ehkä ei ole niin väliä, mihin tiehen
panostamme ja uskomme. Ehkä väliä on vain
sillä, että panostamme.

-Barbara Hall-

Book: The Noah Confessions
Author: Barbara Hall
Binding: Paperback
Publishing Date: 2008/11/11
Publisher: Delacorte Press Books For Young Readers
Number of Pages: 215

Category: Young Adult

My Rating: 4 out of 5

My Review:

I have been reading quite a lot of YA recently and some seriously good YA at that. The Noah Confessions was no exception. An accidental find at my library (which has quite a good selection of Teen books ) I was intrigued on reading the summary at the back. I must say I was little put off with the cover though.

Lynnie Russo  is as difficult to handle as is any 16 yr old when her highly  expected birthday gift of a car , turns out to be a really ugly-looking bird charm bracelet. Every person in her school gets a new car when they turn sixteen. But her father has other plans. When she fails to understand his intention at not letting her have a car , and bunks her class to take a surfing lesson from a friend , he hands over a manuscript, saying that her mother , who died when Lynnie was a little girl ,wanted her to have this. Now ,Lynnie  is stuck with 2 gifts she doesn’t really want , an  ugly bracelet and an old set of letters written by her mom to some guy named Noah when she was a teen ager.

What follows is a Lynnie’s  journey in to her late mother’s childhood and teenage. Along the way , she uncovers a few family secrets she would rather not know and some that bring joy to her . All the time thinking did she really know the perfect  mother she idolizes .

It’s a really beautiful narrative with quite a storyline. I really liked the father daughter bond , that Lynnie and John Russo share. Even though she hates the gift he gives her , she still wears it so that he doesn’t feel bad. I am yet to see a teenager I know do that.

Her are a few lines from the book I really liked

He said, “Lynnie, Mommy is gone.” It was that simple. And part of me still blamed him just because he was the one who said it. I remember going very still and thinking, Don’t cry, don’t show anything. Because if you show something  it will be real, not just for you but for him. I started taking care of him right that moment.

And I hadn’t stopped. I didn’t know how to stop. Which was why I was wearing the stupid bird bracelet and why I hadn’t cried or complained as much as I wanted to about the car. I
had to let it go. He had been through enough and I was all he had.

Now  why didn’t I give this book a 5 on 5? Firstly , it did grow monotonous somewhere half way through, got a little philosophical for a YA.  That didn’t last long. It went back to fast and interesting within 4 to 5  of pages. Secondly , the cover. Come on , they could have done better than that. It has no connection whatsoever with the story , it’s a big put off so to say.

If not for these 2 little glitches , the book is a wonderful read.

Highly recommended for teens and adults alike

You’re alive. Do something. The directive in life, the moral imperative was so uncomplicated. It could be expressed in single words, not complete sentences. It sounded like this: Look. Listen. Choose. Act.

-Barbara Hall, A Summons to New Orleans, 2000-

Toronto Star – In a move that should inspire fear in all of Toronto’s landlords, a report is being released by the Centre for Equality Rights in Accommodation (CERA), regarding the rampant ‘human rights violations’ occurring in Toronto.

“I think it’s fair to say most people are not aware there is a human rights component to housing,” [Barbara] Hall said in an interview.

“The commission has never focused on this issue and it’s something we and other commissions in Canada are just beginning to investigate.”

The study’s findings translate into tens of thousands of Torontonians potentially facing discrimination, including about 6,000 single parents, 2,000 of whom are single black parents like Stewart.

This is just what Ontario needs, a massive Human Rights Commission crusade aimed at destroying several thousand landlords livelihoods. The report seems to make no distinction between individuals renting out their basements, or large multi-unit rental buildings.

The problem is, that if these landlords were not selective in who they rented to, they would be faced with the even more onerous Ontario Landlord and Tenant Act. So if they did accept a tenant that could not pay rent, caused damage, or did anything else detrimental to the property, it would take months to evict that tenant. And many of these landlords do not have the financial stability to afford a tenant that does not pay rent for months on end.

The report is due out today, and I’m sure Barbara Hall will be quick to mount a campaign against landlords great and small.

Because you are in control of your life. Don’t ever forget that. You are what you are because of the conscious and subconscious choices you have made.

The Music Teacher by Barbara Hall starts out like this:

“I am the mean music teacher.  I am the cranky woman you remember from your youth, the one whose face you dreaded seeing, whose breath you dreaded smelling as I leaned over you, tugging at your fingers.  You made jokes about me, drew caricatures of me in your notebooks, made puns out of my name, swore never to be me.

Well, listen.  I swore never to be me, too.”

Pearl Swain is a 40 year old divorced violin teacher working in a Los Angeles music store.  She started playing the violin too late to ever truly be great, plus her parents couldn’t afford proper lessons, so here she is.  She never considered any other career but music- it is all she’s ever wanted to do.  Her co-workers are also frustrated musicians, teaching instead of playing, picking up small gigs here and there, and endlessly discussing music.  The clerks and teachers argue about who has more students and why, about different teaching philosophies, about who is the best guitar player ever, or which instrument is the best.  The continuous banter reminded me of High Fidelity by Nick Hornby (set in a London record shop).  

Pearl has a wry sense of humor and I liked her introspective thoughts on music and life.  But with a failed marriage, a half-hearted attempt at a career, few friends and a solitary existence, she wears her social isolation like a jacket. She seems to have given up on herself and on any dreams for the future.  According to one of her co-workers, she fails to ‘extend herself’.  She needs to get a life.

In walks Hallie, a troubled teen full of talent and promise but saddled with an attitude and a family that is not really hers.  The state pays for her lessons and her ‘family’ could care less.  She doesn’t want to be there but, according to Hallie,  ”every half hour I spend here is a half hour I don’t have to spend at home.”  Pearl recognizes Hallie’s gift immediately (perfect pitch! a natural ear!) and becomes excited and over-invested in her future, as any teacher might.  But then she crosses a line and becomes over-involved in her life.  

All of this causes Pearl to ruminate on her own life.  There are so many good quotes about music and life in The Music Teacher.  This one comes during Pearl’s first session with Hallie, when she sees that the battered violin Hallie pulls from the case has been played, and if a wood instrument has been played, ‘that’s half the battle’.

“I will tell you why, though you might not care.  A musician is used to that- caring to an outrageous degree about something everyone else ignores.”

The Music Teacher is author Barbara Hall’s 9th book.  She is also the award-winning creator of the tv series Judging Amy and Joan of Arcadia, and contributes scripts for other shows as well.  

This is an excellent little book, one that held my interest from beginning to end.  It’s definitely introspective, with more thoughts and dialogue than action (not a lot really happens).  That is not a criticism- I thoroughly enjoyed it- but if you like your books action-packed, this won’t be for you.  It made me think about my relationships with others, the depth of my friendships and acquaintances (or lack thereof)- when to get involved with another’s problems and when to mind your own business.  It also made me think about music and lessons, following your dreams or those of your children, when to push a kid or let them decide, when to encourage, when to back off.  Highly recommended.

Thank you to Algonquin Books for sending me this book to review.

Miz B and Teaser Tuesdays asks you to: Grab your current read. Let the book fall open to a random page. Share with us two (2) sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12. You also need to share the title of the book that you’re getting your “teaser” from … that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you’ve given!

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My teaser this week comes from page 66 of The Music Teacher by Barbara Hall, which I just received yesterday from Algonquin Books (haven’t started it yet).

“For me, it all started in the second grade, when the class was auditioned for the school band.  That was back in the day when there was such a thing as a music program in public schools.”

Oh, how well I can relate to this teaser!  In California, budget cuts have decimated the schools’ music and art programs.  Our school sent home a notice this week that the limited music program we had this year is now officially terminated for next year.  No music.  No art.  Lots of state testing, though!

Yesterday my high school friend Debi (isn’t Facebook such a great way to reconnect?) asked me a thoughtful question about my vow of poverty which caused me to spontaneously spill out an email which has morphed into this post.  (Note:  the soundtrack for this post is slightly old school –  Pink’s Get this Party Started.)  

At the core of my vow of poverty is to live each moment of my life as if money is completely unnecessary and doesn’t matter.  One thing I have noticed is that people often allow the pursuit of money to impoverish their personal relationships — and I’m not just talking about the pursuit of wealth (as in big money).  I’m even talking about the pursuit of the basic money necessary to survive.  If you consistently put people first, it is EASY to eventually find yourself poor, trust me.  Just ask a single working parent who stays home with her kids when they’re sick . . . .

I worked my way through college, and senior year my sole source of income was a job at my Aunt’s bookstore (a job I had worked for over six months and LOVED).  One Friday my mother called as I was getting ready for work:  my grandmother had fallen, was in transit to the hospital, and no one was able to go be with her but me.  I called my Aunt (opposite branch of the family) and she said if I did not show up that day, I was fired (this was only my second time to ever miss work, but the first time had just been the week before:  I had the flu).  That my own flesh and blood could fire me under these circumstances is nothing less than the banality of evil at work . . . but boy was she a ‘good Methodist’ on Sundays!  

I say that sarcastically, having been burned repeatedly myself by hypocrites pretending to be Christian.  My second ex-husband, a largely uneducated manual laborer, is currently in an employment arrangement which is nothing other than white slavery — all because he lacks  social and economic power and his employer, Don, knows it.  Don loves three things in life:  money, his church, and cheating his employees any which way he can.   Go figure . . . .  In his defense, he tithes their unpaid wages to his church AND slavery is permitted under Old Testament law, so I guess it’s all good.  (That was sarcasm again:  just making sure we’re on the same page.) 

Back to my Aunt firing me:  I had no idea how I was going to make it without my job, but of course I chose to go be with my grandmother (and yes I was fired) . . . but thank God I did, because as I held her hand and cried with her she slipped into a coma, never came out of it and died a week later.  I could have never lived with myself if I had put my FEAR of being without a job ahead of being there for her in her hour of need.  And I’ve made those choices throughout my life — before and after taking the vow of poverty, but especially afterwards — and although God is faithful and always opens windows when doors close, still it often means just barely getting what you need, not what you want (or THINK you need).

Jesus summed up God’s law as pointing to one thing and one thing only:  that God desires us to put relationship above all things  –  relationship with God and then relationship with other human beings.   In the early 90’s God brought me into close relationship with a number of people seduced by ‘Christian’ New Age principles precisely so I could experience for myself  how these seductive ideas subtly erode the spiritual lives of all who embrace them.  One massage therapist friend justified his callous treatment of his girlfriend (i.e., ignoring her to practice yoga and meditation, like many ’Christians’  ignore loved ones to go to the gym or watch a ballgame . . . ) by telling me he was at a stage in life when he couldn’t be ‘bothered’ with the burdens of relationship because he needed to focus on his spirituality.  My immediate thought:  “God, man!  There is nothing else TO spirituality but RELATIONSHIP!”  I mean, for REAL!  Can you say ‘narcissistic wolf hiding and cowering within a (false) spiritual sheepskin’ or WHAT?! 

This also reminds me that when I was too poor to have a car, I rode the bus frequently in Dallas and got to know a few people who also relied exclusively on mass transit.  This one woman appeared to observe a vow of poverty similar to my own, but she was so obnoxious in how she CONSTANTLY talked about ‘Jesus this and Jesus that.’  

People:  your relationship with God is a personal and private matter you just do not need to TALK about constantly in casual conversation!  You do not witness to others through words but through living a life of love, integrity, acceptance of ‘others as they are so they can see what they can become’ . . . as Jesus did.   When someone observes that you live fearlessly, with integrity and strength, such that he approaches YOU about what ‘makes you tick’ — i.e., you haven’t approached him, he’s approached you – THEN pull out the bible verses and talk about the difference that relationship with God makes in your life.  I mean, hello!  What do you think Jesus MEANT when he told us each to not be like hypocrites who preach their spirituality on every street corner?   He was CONDEMNING public preaching, absolutely.

This ’stranger on a bus’ grew to know and trust me, and finally confided that her husband had a drinking problem and complained constantly that she was always gone from home . . . attending church and Bible studies!  At first I kept my thoughts to myself — I knew I couldn’t have an influence if I ran her off speaking Truth before she was ready to hear it — until the day SHE admitted, “Maybe God would rather me be at home trying to save my husband and my marriage instead of being at church constantly.”    

I wanted to scream “DUH — DO YA THINK?!!!”  But of course I just praised her for having finally hit the nail on the head, and used her opening to gently speak my mind on the topic.

While editing the above paragraph, after publishing the post once or twice already, Joan Osborne started singing in One of Us  ‘what if God is just a stranger on a bus, trying to get home?’  Since I forgot that song was in this playlist — one I haven’t played in awhile — the coincidence doesn’t seem accidental.  By the way, if you’ve never watched the TV show Joan of Arcadia, for which One of Us is the theme song, see if your local library has the series on DVD (it’s no longer on TV).  It’s an awesome and painless way to learn how God REALLY works – because the theology of Joan of Arcadia is simply impeccable.  Barbara Hall, if you’re listening, you did good.  [Hall, a Catholic who grew up a Southern girl as I did, created, wrote and produced Joan of Arcadia.  You go girl!  There's a great bio piece on her on the Random House website:  http://www.randomhouse.com/author/results.pperl?authorid=11573]

If you put relationship first, then in the workplace you will be an employee who does not shy away from speaking up on behalf of coworkers who are being discriminated against or otherwise treated unfairly (when they ask you:  I’m not saying you should intentionally focus on ferreting these things out.  You are there to work, so your focus should be on work.  TRUST ME that people who need help will come to you without you doing anything to solicit that).  But because ‘power corrupts,’ most people with ANY amount of management authority in the workplace will let the unequal power of the employer-employee relationship go to their heads, such that you will end up fired or otherwise transitioned out of a job by standing up for what is fair (this is the impetus behind whistleblower laws, though they are so limited and largely ineffective). 

I have been squeezed out of jobs — jobs I had performed excellently, by the way – SO many times by doing nothing other than responding to a work situation in a way which showed that I cared more about the ‘least of my brethren’ than job security . . . so OF COURSE I observe a vow of poverty, because it’s either that or risk getting an ulcer!  HA!  Oh!  Oh!  The opportunity to insert a favorite quote which is relevant!  I can’t pass THAT up!!   This is from C.S. Lewis’  Introduction to The Screwtape Letters (which you MUST read if you haven’t): 

I live in the Managerial Age, in a world of ‘Admin.’  The greatest evil is not now done in those sordid ‘dens of crime’ that Dickens loved to paint.  It is not done even in concentration camps and labour camps.  In those we see its final result.  But it is conceived and ordered (moved, seconded, carried, and minuted) in clean, carpeted, warmed, and well-lighted offices, by quiet men with white collars and cut fingernails and smooth-shaven cheeks who do not need to raise their voice.  Hence, naturally enough, my symbol for Hell is something like the bureaucracy of a police state or the offices of a thoroughly nasty business concern. 

Finally, to have a deep and meaningful relationship with God requires spending a lot of time alone with Him just as you would spend time with a person, because He IS a person (even though he is not a human being . . . and not all human beings qualify as ‘persons’  the way I mean . . . but that’s a whole different post).  I have OFTEN during my life, especially after I took my vow, experienced an inner knowing that God wanted me to drop everything (even if it meant missing work) to spend the day alone with Him, in contemplation, inner dialogue, solitude . . . and if THAT approach life to life won’t make you materially poor, I don’t know what will, frankly!

So, my vow is not really about money:  it’s about the REALIZATION and ACCEPTANCE that making choices in accord with God’s will is most likely going to lead to a life of material poverty — because God’s priorities are absolutely, 100% NOT the world/society’s priorities, and if you act on them, the world will seek to punish you by pushing you out of the economic marketplace.  This is a passive-aggressive way of ‘murdering’ you (as the world murdered Christ) because if you cannot afford food and shelter you MIGHT just really die off . . . in a way which protects the perpetrator(s) from earthly accountability!  (i.e., No one goes to prison when a homeless man dies of exposure and malnutrition).

But the faith part is trusting Jesus’ testimony (Matt. 6:25-34) that God won’t let that happen . . . or, if He does, it is because He has His own purpose in allowing you to suffer at the hands of the world, and He is pursuing a purposeful plan which is structured in some miraculous way that He will eventually make it all up to you, in His own time and way.   For me personally, the prospect of eventually securing a nomination for Best Original Screenplay and getting to be at the Oscars as a participant makes up for a lot.  And getting to speak out publicly —  through my books, blog and website — about how my experiences with poverty have shown me what God desires us to change in the world makes up for a lot.  But the fact that all five of my living children are turning out to be AWESOME men and women of God who share my values makes up for EVERYTHING!!  They are my joy incarnate.    

Bottom line thought for the day:  DREAM ON, DREAM BIG . . . and trust that if it is GOD who has inspired those dreams (and not your puny, petty ego) He’ll do miraculous, eye-popping things to help you accomplish them.  Even if it means you have to endure being destitution-level poor in the process!  It’s all good.  (No sarcasm this time.)

P.S.  Yes, I know I am 45 and Pink is half my age such that where do I get off calling her music ‘old school’??   Go ahead, slap me if you must . . . but I have no shame.  My kids keep me young at heart.   If it makes you feel better, by the end of the post I was acting my age and listening to Bruce Springsteen.  So chill.  I know I have gray hairs ( a few)!

Despite the fact that the woman in question admitted she isn’t particularly religious [I suppose it's a fashion statement], and that Islamic scholars admit it has nothing to do with the religion itself, the HRC has ruled in favour of religion trumping secular law. That should do more than frighten a few people, who can now suppose that their accusers in court will not be forced to face them as is prescribed by secular law. The niqab is actually a very modern import to Canada, as Mr.Fatah points out, and has even less to do with religious tradition:

Most of Canada’s growth in niqabi women can be traced to 2004, when a radical Pakistani female scholar by the name of Farhat Hashmi came to this country on a visitor’s visa. After arrival, she was twice denied a work permit. But that didn’t stop her from establishing a Muslim school in Mississauga, Ont. that prosletyzed Wahhabist norms — including the wearing of the niqab, leaving the workforce and embracing polygamy.

A majority of Canadian Muslims have looked on in shock, unable to understand why this country would tolerate the oppression of women in the name of religion and multiculturalism.

Despite the fact that the Burqa and Niqab are little more cultural chauvinism that dehumanize women in Islamic society, the Ontario Human Rights Commission has argued that a provincial judge [a real judge, not a fake one like the HRC] failed to recognize the religious “freedoms” of a Muslim woman when he ordered to testify in court without her veil, as is customary under secular law. The HRC is asking for “permission” to intervene at a Superior Court hearing to rectify the matter:

“The Commission can offer the court assistance and expertise in the area of accommodation particularly in relation to discrimination based on creed or religious belief,” states an affidavit by Barbara Hall, chief commissioner of the human rights body.

[...]

The woman appealed the ruling to the Superior Court and last week the Human Rights Commission filed documents seeking to be allowed to participate in the hearing.

“The court had a duty to accommodate her religious beliefs and failed, procedurally and substantively to do so,” the commission argues. Ordering the removal of the niqab was a “drastic measure” that was not necessary to balance the rights of the defendants, the human rights agency suggests.

Truly, Barbara Hall has lost all sense of irony. An empowered western woman helping to uphold the 20th Century invention of Saudi Arabian Wahhabist brand of Islam and Sharia Law. Disgusting. Shameful. Abhorrent.

Yes, let the Ontario Human Rights Commission petitions to restore muslim women to their proper display of subservience.

I read the news extensively every day. It’s a sort of necessity if one wants to continue being a relevant blogger, and to ensure that one isn’t contradicting or repeating oneself unnecessarily. I find it incredible, however, that for all the articles about foreign and domestic issues, the one that is the most serious, the most nefarious, the most dangerous, is being almost completely ignored by a slumbering media. The other day I blogged about the Conservatives bringing forth a Commons justice committee on the Human Rights Commission, but lamented it was only carried by the Globe and Mail. Today, despite scouring hundreds of articles and blog entries, I found only one pertaining to the Human Rights Commission, despite the disturbing content of the article. The National Post is reporting that the HRC is calling for what can only be called a kind of CRTC for the media, with a far more heinous agenda. This is tantamount to the thought police in our free press:

The Ontario Human Rights Commission is calling for Parliament to force all Canadian magazines, newspapers and “media services” Web sites to join a national press council with the power to adjudicate breaches of professional standards and complaints of discrimination.

The council would have the power to order the publication of its decisions and “would help bring about more consistency across all jurisdictions in Canada,” reads an OHRC report to the Canadian Human Rights Commission.

The media’s freedom of expression comes with a duty to “address issues of hate expression, and [media] should do so either voluntarily through provincial press councils, or through statutory creation of a national press council with compulsory membership,” the report reads.

Make no mistake about it. This is the slippery slope to control of the press through the ubiquitous progressive agenda to enforce a specific kind of editorial content for Canadian news. The very idea of placing a caveat such as “freedom of expression comes with a duty” sounds alarmingly like totalitarian doublespeak. It is as if the pigs are attempting to modify the charter of rights for the rest of the animals.

The power to “order” publications to enforce content that is considered “consistent” with approved messaging is not something that should be endorsed in a “free society”. If a national press council were formed with editorial control over the press, it would be the end of the facade of our liberty in Canada. It is sinister for the HRC to say that on the one hand the media “have full freedom and control over what they publish”, and in the same breath recognize that enough complaints from vulnerable groups could cause action from the council to enforce consistency. If Muslim groups didn’t like opinion pieces on their religion, they could petition this council until it acted to remove any literature of that nature:

Soon after, the idea was endorsed by Mohamed Elmasry, former head of the Canadian Islamic Congress and the driving force behind three high-profile hate speech complaints against Maclean’s over alleged Islamophobia in opinion writing. He said the council would be modelled on the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission, and it would provide a forum for complaints, while advocating for what he called “fairness, professionalism, ethnic diversity, all the good stuff.”

Former Toronto Mayor, Barbara Hall, is behind this, saying: “It allows the affected groups to explain how they’ve been harmed, or the impact on them.”

But in what way is it the responsibility of a free society to curtail the perceived “harm” or impact that words have on the sensibilities of others? There is a very simple rebuttal to all of this: if you feel harmed by what you read, do not read that article. If you feel impacted by what you read, you may read something else. This will essentially remove the fundamental freedom of legitimate and “fair comment” in our society, and water it down into a kind of government-approved and controlled medium.

The road to ruin can be paved with good intentions, and in our ridiculous quest to ensure all comment be fair toward everyone who hears it, we will most certainly destroy the classical liberal cornerstone of our civilization. Stalinist control over our media, even in the most seemingly innocuous forms, must be stamped out and eradicated now.

RELATED

I spoke too soon. Another blogger weighed in two days ago. Alexander Gault on “HRCs Decide They Haven’t Done Enough Damage, Seek More Power” [Link]

“Because you are in control of your life.  Don’t ever forget that you are what you are because of the conscious and subconscious choices you have made.”

–Barbara Hall